Had a long motorcycle ride yesterday and my mind started wandering - like it does!
If I remember back to my early days shooting, it was possible to have a burst fire semi-auto center fire rifle, 2 or 3 shots for one pull of the trigger.
Question: would this be legal in a .22RF today?
Not planning on trying to mod my 10/22 (any more than it is!), but burst fire would be a giggle against maurauding zombies (aka 4 pint milk cartons full of water :lol: )
I'm afraid not, in this the Home Office were quite thorough:
Section 5 (1)
any firearm which is so designed or adapted that two or more missiles can be successively discharged without repeated pressure on the trigger.
(1.1) any self-loading or pump-action rifled gun other than one which is chambered for .22 rim-fire cartridges.
If they had simply left the law banning 'a machine gun' and amended it only to include 'self-loading or pump-action rifled gun other than one which is chambered for .22 rim-fire cartridges' then indeed .22 rimfire burst fire would be legal, as would burst first shotguns! However they added the additional clause banning ANY gun that fires two or more successive missiles without repeated pressure to the trigger. This puts paid to those possibilities.
However, this may be legal:
It is a stock called the Akins Accelerator which accepts a standard Ruger 10/22 and allows the action to recoil backwards inside the stock, propelling it back forwards again through spring pressure. If you press the trigger and keep your finger in place, the trigger will recoil backwards away from your finger, reset, and then be pushed forward back against your finger causing the rifle to fire again and the process start over. This is just bump-firing which can be done, with a little practice or the aid of your belt loop/a piece of dowel, without the need for a special stock (the Akins Accelerator just makes it a great deal easier, feeling very much like a real machinegun):
In the USA, guns fitted with the Akins Accelerator were ruled by the ATF to be machineguns but no such ruling exists in the UK, nor could it exist because we have no extra-judicial authority for firearms classification (of course a court could rule similarly however, but I'm not sure how likely that is given the previous legality of burst fire). I'm not sure on the legality of it but, if the Akins Accelerators themselves remain nothing but lumps of plastic in the eyes of the law, and only become illegal when fitted to a rifle, then they could be legally exported. Given the large number of Americans eager to get rid of these paperweights you could probably get one cheap!
Another option is this (which remains legal in the USA and I believe a few of them are knocking around in the UK - no reason you can't import one):
i thought the atkins accellrater was just a drop in spring,still never mind...........i do remember the vp70 by hk,when u added the stock it was a 3 round burst,simalar to the stocks of mausers where the pistol fitted into the stock for ease of carry, for downed pilots and personell whove no space to carry a conventional rifle.......guy at the club had the pistol,but never got hold of a proper stck for it............and while were remanicing,wat ever happend to the calico?
When someone says "it's not about the money" you know what? it probably is all about money!
I remember shooting a Beretta pistol that fired three round 'bursts'. This was back in the '80s when there were still restrictions on automatic weapons but presumably this was legal.
I do seem to recall that the Calico SMG was offered in .22 RF?
yes ive seen one guy with a .22 calico,he couldent hit a barn door at 20m with his gun,my refrence to them was that they were supposed to change shooting altogether!! with 100 round mags and waterproof this and carbon fibre that,they promised so much and deliverd so little,i guess they just never caught on.........
When someone says "it's not about the money" you know what? it probably is all about money!
Thanks for the replies - and for not taking the question too seriously! :goodjob:
Tried bump firing a 10/22, but didn't have much luck. When I finally convince Gwent police to issue a variation for an FAC semi-auto shotgun for 'target shotgun', I'll probably try to bump fire that as well :roll: .
So I guess burst fire was legal until the various changes to the firearms act in 1988??
As far as life in the valleys...yep, I'm (just about) in the Rhymney Valley, and for a Newport boy moving up here was a major improvement.
